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FFXIII Trilogy Gets Retrospective 16-bit Trailer, And We Tear Up

Heading into February's launch of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix has decided to give us a story recap.

After all, the upcoming title marks the end of a complex trilogy, so we could all use a refresher. That recap trailer is below...weren't expecting that, were you?

As you can see, it's a 16-bit (albeit high-def) retrospective video, which spans eight minutes and reminds us of two things: Firstly, the story arc of the trilogy in question, and secondly, that at one time in history, the Final Fantasy franchise did look like that. FFVI springs rapidly to mind. There's something so cool and yet, so very, very sad about this trailer.

It's designed to help promote a franchise that has, for all intents and purposes, gone into the toilet. And yet, the video's manifest intent gives way to its latent intent, as it only reminds us of when the series wasn't in the toilet. When it was just starting to rule the world. When its name was on the way to becoming legendary.

I agree. Even some type of proper hybrid. To be honest, I have no problem with the FFXIII and XIII-2 battle system, I just can't stand how it's all sped up and focused on auto-battle. I love the idea of queuing up multiple actions and expending your ATB gauge all at once. Doesn't that sound great on paper?

I love XIII's combat system. Had it not had an auto-command feature I reckon it would get a lot less slack. I'd say I select my abilities 90% of the time, battles I know I can win I am less willing to but even if I decided not to my focus is on switching Paradigms - Which is what the battle system is all about really. I also love the use of the stagger bar and finding the best methods to hit that peak. I honestly have found XIII's combat system to be one of the more engaging ones in the series.

I for XII could not stand XII's battle system. in previous FF's you would wait and then select your command, but in XII you have to select your command THEN wait - That reversal makes all the difference as I found myself getting rather fed up on many occasions. I don't really care for the Gambit system, if I am not in control of a character it may as well be automated. I never found the AI in XIII to be a problem. I admit I never really did any of the more advanced fights in XII as I found the game tedious and just wanted to finish it. But I mostly found myself just using buffs and attack pretty much through out the entire game.

I loved XII's system. You could control all the characters at any given point in time, you could use the gambit system to manage them while you weren't controlling them, and you could essentially teach them to act like you would. It was like a "Hive mind system."

Great game, weaker story, but still some great characters. XIII's active time battle system was interesting enough if you delved deep enough. Ultimately though, it became a rather different sort of strategy game. I hated not having any control of the other characters. If they let me control them, I would have been much happier.

What? Only had to wait in XII? No way. You REGULARLY had to wait after inputting a command in previous FF's. In fact, you had to wait your turn. XII operated in much the same way X-2 did, in fact. And that's a game that, if for nothing else, is lauded for it's battle system.

At least in XII you know as soon as your timer runs up the action will occur. Everything prior, you had to let other characters and enemies finish their animations before your command would take place. So I definitely disagree on that point.

XIII had way too many problems to be considered great (only control one person, death to leader = death to all, get smacked around while watching a flashy paradigm shift, etc. etc. etc.) . And if the only real depth to a battle system is to switch between 6 possible paradigms.... Speaking of which, there is no story scripted reason for why we needed to be restricted to 6.Last edited by Underdog15 on 1/30/2014 9:47:14 AM

Yeah, Ultima, what Underdog said. I have no idea what you're talking about concerning FFXII. And FFXIII was a step back for several reasons, one of which being if the "leader" dies, the game is over. That's just one of the problems.

Pathetic.They had the time for this and the FFVII tech demo a few years back but they can't even put out a good game often?What the f*** man?FFXV and KH3 took them almost 10 years now, and it's likely to.What was SE thinking with this?Trying to win back the heart of the long-time fans?

It was a tech demo, they also did a PS2 Tech demo with the dance scene from Final Fantasy VIII & on the PS2 we got Final Fantasy X so extra things like this have nothing to do with the quality of their games, it's marketing.

I'm not being critical of the quality.It has been decent if not good as of late.But I'm talking about how many games they're pushing out.SE is arguably the biggest JRPG company in Japan but they can't even roll out their games fast enough.How many years already since KHII?What about Versus XIII? Suddenly it became FFXV, they probably ran out of ideas and simply just slapped FFXV on Versus XIII?

I used to think that SE is on the wrong track going the right way, but now it seems that they're going on the wrong track and wrong way.

I think SE just keeps doing stuff like this to make us think they haven't changed and really all they're are doing is proving how blind they are.

Being the graphic powerhouse is cool and all, but bring back classic turn based combat, bring back the world map, bring back cities full of people and shops.

You want it flashy like 13, do the turn based battle system and make the attacks crazy flashy. In FF VII when you pulled off some crazy move it came with a wicked show, go back to that and I'd be grateful.

I'm currently working on ff vi for the first time, it's pretty classic ff, but for years I heard people saying it's better than 7. I'm not done yet, but so far I still gotta go with 7.

I'm not really as nostalgic towards 16-bit graphics as a lot of other people here, but I did get 2 things from this. The first is that there might actually be a good and interesting story hidden in there, it just needs one hell of an editing job (like a rather pretty garden that's horribly overgrown with weeds). The second that there must be at least one person in SE who secretly hates the fans with a passion and is snickering at this whole thing.

I thought this would be up for discussion today when I saw it last night :)

Firstly, I really do like this video, S-E did many things right. I love how it looks like the original sprites and feel of Final Fantasy VI & Not one of there crappy iOS re-releases. The video looks fantastic and I don't usually fall for Retro fashion, but they did a good job. But some moments were done really well, Yuel's parts was pretty funny - Though when Caius confronts Lightning it makes her seem like a complete B**** :P

The problem. The problem is that once again it feels like S-E is feeding off the history of the franchise rather than delivering with this new game. Why is this done in in FF6's 16-bit design?... I'm mean as a story summary... it's pretty weak, as it lacks information much like XIII did in hiding its depth in datalogs...

I just cannot help but compare this to the costumes they're forcing into this game. Final Fantasy VII has nothing to do with this game, so why are they putting pre-order bonuses for Cloud and Arieth costumes? I can accept Yuna's costume due to the FFX HD re-release, but with VII's content there is no excuse than feeding off prior successes, which is cheap. I would welcome Lightnings XIII-1 & XIII-2 attire as that is certainly more relative - and it doesn't look as ridiculous as the black dominatrix gear Lightning has been wearing as her main suit for LR.

The demo was a kick to the groin, and this is like them giving you an icepack for your nuts then stomping on your jaw and taking the icepack back.

Its like they use nostalgia to try to sell this bastardized JRPG, but they never thought to just make a nostalgic JRPG....I have ... no idea who is running Square, I used to think monkeys but that is an insult to monkeys. Monkeys learn from their mistakes. It must be a barrel filled with old wool socks.

It's just a trailer but I really do wonder if it is a small signal that SE is finally digging itself out of it's PS3-era quagmire? Between it, Bravely Default and the supposedly quite good FF XIV, there are signs they recognize what made them great in the first place and might have interest in getting back toward it in some capacity? I mean, they can't be happy with their sales these days, so one has to think their open to trying new things (which is to say, the old things they used to do.) Wishful thinking?

I mean, it was obviously created as a homage to the old school fans that loved the FF series. How can they be trying to cater to those fans, but at the same time destroying the FF franchise by making the games NOTHING like the previous titles?